Canadian Upper Middle Class Gaming Rig Build

[the_pincer]

Hi friends, I'm returning to PC hardware after a brief (10 year) hiatus. 

 

I have done my basic homework and would appreciate a quick review of where I'm at with things. I generally look for value / upgrade path. 

First the context / prereqs

1. Budget & Location

East coast Canada - targeting around $1500 CAD, not afraid to go a bit over if it makes sense. 

2. Aim

Killing my 7 yr old son in Fortnight on his switch and converting him into a lifelong PC gamer lol. Youtube video editing. Probably get into some AAA titles myself. 

3. Monitors

I currently have a BenQ 24-inch LED Monitor, 2ms, HDMI (GL2460HM) which I will continue to use for the time being and then upgrade to a 144Hz IPS panel like BenQ EX2780Q 27 Inch QHD 1440P IPS 144Hz Gaming Monitor | Hdri | DCI-P3 | USB-C after I get my rig up and running. 

4. Peripherals

I have Corsair Strafe keyboard and M65 mouse. 

5. Why are you upgrading?

Currently running on a 6 yr old Sammy laptop w/ a 640m GPU. 

 

And now the build - 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor	$249.99 @ Memory Express
Motherboard	Asus TUF GAMING X570-PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard	$214.75 @ Vuugo
Memory	Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory	$108.99 @ Newegg Canada
Storage	Samsung 970 Evo 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$133.13 @ Amazon Canada
Storage	Seagate Barracuda 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$89.99 @ Newegg Canada
Video Card	Gigabyte Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB GAMING OC Video Card	$559.99 @ Newegg Canada
Case	Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case	$74.50 @ Vuugo
Power Supply	Corsair RMx 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
Operating System	Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit	$134.75 @ Vuugo
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$1566.09
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-12-10 22:13 EST-0500

 

Cool site that parts picker... it told me the mobo needs an additional 4PIN that the PSU does not have so I will have to change that. Anything else stand out to anyone as a mistake? Thanks for your time and consideration. 

 

[AvocadosGuac]

For what you want, you seem to have done a good job. The motherboard will not require the additional 4 pin PSU connector. I would suggest not buying a Windows 10 license, and rather use it while its not activated. This will save you that $135, and will only leave a watermark, and will disable some customization options. If it causes you an issue, then you can activate windows later no problem.

[the_pincer]

Just read the same thing about the mobo and didn't realize that was an option for Windows, thanks Guac! I think my old DFI Lanparty board had a similar additional PSU connection required but it was needed because we used to crank up the original 64bit AMD chips arooo! 

[Herman Mcpootis]

get a silicon power A80 or SX8200 Pro for the ssd and save some money. otherwise it's fine.

[Bombastinator]

#2. You will likely fail   

it has nothing to do with hardware. Fortnight is a twitch game and he’s 7.  He’s got a brand spanking new nervous system.  We can try to get you close though.  He’s got some serious disadvantages, mostly in his hardware.  He’s got crap joysticks to move with, his frame rate is low, and his resolution is worse.  As far as pure twitch button pounding though he’ll PWN you.

 

You don’t need that much motherboard.  B450 MAX of some sort will do you.  Near a Benjamin or less.

 

theres a hundred.  The monitor is going to be key.  You’ll want an above 60 fps refresh rate and better resolution than he has.  Iirc the thing is 720p.  Whatever it is you need more.

24” 1080p 144hz might do it.  27” probably better.  It’ll look a bit chunky but old eyes may need it.

 

 If you can stay in the band where you’re so far away you’re nothing but a single pixel to him he won’t be able to aim to return sniper fire.  Also you can vary your movement speed better.  Use it.  Assuming that’s even a possible avenue in fortnight.  I’m too old to even play it.  You’d wax me with newer neurons alone.

 

A good accurate gaming mouse is going to be a big one.  Shoot more accurately.  Keyboard probably not so much, but a good mouse may be key.

 

remember you’re fighting his hardware.  His FPU sucks. Bog it down with trash. Flying garbage it has to render but can’t do fast enough.  While his renderer is flayed rendering flying stuff he’s blind.  Make sure he can’t do that to you.  The 5700 is a good step there.

[DailyProcrastinator]

Overall good but I personally would change the RAM, m.2 SSD, and case.

For $20 less you can get a 3600MHz kit which benefits CPU performance. 

Samsung 970 evo is stupidly overpriced, these HP m.2 drives have nearly identical performance with a much lower $/GB price. 

Case is a personal preference, spend a bit more on something that is nice and shows off your hardware.

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor	$249.99 @ Memory Express
Motherboard	Asus TUF GAMING X570-PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard	$214.75 @ Vuugo
Memory	G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory	$86.99 @ Newegg Canada
Storage	HP EX920 512 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$88.99 @ PC-Canada
Storage	Seagate Barracuda 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$89.99 @ Newegg Canada
Video Card	Gigabyte Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB GAMING OC Video Card	$559.99 @ Newegg Canada
Case	Phanteks P300 ATX Mid Tower Case	$79.98 @ Amazon Canada
Power Supply	Corsair RMx 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
Operating System	Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit	$134.75 @ Vuugo
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$1505.43
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-12-10 22:55 EST-0500

 

[the_pincer]

9 minutes ago, Herman Mcpootis said:

get a silicon power A80 or SX8200 Pro for the ssd and save some money. otherwise it's fine.

Hmm, I know little about these new m.2 drives.. the silicon power reviews scare me. The ADATA one I would consider. I have no point of reference to compare against so if i get a poorly performing m.2 drive I wont know the difference. Anyone else want to weigh in on this one? 

What about the RAM? I am not read up on current days timings... is there better value our there for RAM than the 3200mhz corsair vengence? 

Thanks all 

[Bombastinator]

1 minute ago, JM21 said:

Overall good but I personally would change the RAM, m.2 SSD, and case.

For $20 less you can get a 3600MHz kit which benefits CPU performance. 

Samsung 970 evo is stupidly overpriced, these HP m.2 drives have nearly identical performance with a much lower $/GB price. 

Case is a personal preference, spend a bit more on something that is nice and shows off your hardware.

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor	$249.99 @ Memory Express
Motherboard	Asus TUF GAMING X570-PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard	$214.75 @ Vuugo
Memory	G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory	$86.99 @ Newegg Canada
Storage	HP EX920 512 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$88.99 @ PC-Canada
Storage	Seagate Barracuda 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$89.99 @ Newegg Canada
Video Card	Gigabyte Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB GAMING OC Video Card	$559.99 @ Newegg Canada
Case	Phanteks P300 ATX Mid Tower Case	$79.98 @ Amazon Canada
Power Supply	Corsair RMx 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
Operating System	Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit	$134.75 @ Vuugo
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$1505.43
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-12-10 22:55 EST-0500

 

May have a point about the case.  7 year olds can be impressed by shiney shiney.  This may be the first situation I’ve ever heard of where RGB fans aren’t stupid.

[AvocadosGuac]

Just now, the_pincer said:

the silicon power reviews scare me.

I have a SP ssd, its 3 years old. Now, i wouldnt recommend one though.

[VEXICUS]

I have improvised your build a little...

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($249.99 @ Memory Express) 
Motherboard: MSI B450-A PRO MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($129.50 @ Vuugo) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory  ($95.99 @ Newegg Canada) 
Storage: ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 512 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($89.99 @ Newegg Canada Marketplace) 
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 3 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($101.99 @ Newegg Canada) 
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB PULSE Video Card  ($558.80 @ Vuugo) 
Case: Phanteks ECLIPSE P350X ATX Mid Tower Case  ($99.99 @ Amazon Canada) 
Power Supply: Corsair TXM Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply  ($104.50 @ Vuugo) 
Total: $1430.75
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-12-10 22:57 EST-0500

 

Windows keys can be had from sites like kinguin, scd keys, eBay for pretty pretty cheap. Although they are grey licences, but they work fine. I have been using them for a while now, never encountered any problems.

[DailyProcrastinator]

2 minutes ago, the_pincer said:

Hmm, I know little about these new m.2 drives.. the silicon power reviews scare me. The ADATA one I would consider. I have no point of reference to compare against so if i get a poorly performing m.2 drive I wont know the difference. Anyone else want to weigh in on this one? 

What about the RAM? I am not read up on current days timings... is there better value our there for RAM than the 3200mhz corsair vengence? 

Thanks all 

Yeah there is a 3600Mhz 16GB Gskill Ripjaws V kit for $20 less that I recommended 

[the_pincer]

36 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

#2. You will likely fail   

it has nothing to do with hardware. Fortnight is a twitch game and he’s 7.  He’s got a brand spanking new nervous system.  We can try to get you close though.  He’s got some serious disadvantages, mostly in his hardware.  He’s got crap joysticks to move with, his frame rate is low, and his resolution is worse.  As far as pure twitch button pounding though he’ll PWN you.

 

 

Haha the intended purpose is a bit toungue in cheek. You have to understand that I am an old school gamer from the 80's. I was playing CS from the bunny hopping beta. My scout deagle game was unbeatable... used to play under the handle www.scoutschool.edu hahaha. Thanks for your comments but slapping the young fella around for a few more years is not going to be an issue. Like any good father though, my goal is to make him superior to me in every way

[DailyProcrastinator]

2 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

May have a point about the case.  7 year olds can be impressed by shiney shiney.  This may be the first situation I’ve ever heard of where RGB fans aren’t stupid.

Even just seeing the hardware is nice, I personally like static colors anyways but RGB is an appeal to some. 

[the_pincer]

6 minutes ago, JM21 said:

Overall good but I personally would change the RAM, m.2 SSD, and case.

For $20 less you can get a 3600MHz kit which benefits CPU performance. 

Samsung 970 evo is stupidly overpriced, these HP m.2 drives have nearly identical performance with a much lower $/GB price. 

Case is a personal preference, spend a bit more on something that is nice and shows off your hardware.

Thank you sir, I was specifically wondering about the RAM and why not go to 3600Mhz for less. Noted. I will likely get off the Samsung evo drive as well for better $ / performance. Hp could be good. Cheers! 

[DailyProcrastinator]

Just now, the_pincer said:

Thank you sir, I was specifically wondering about the RAM and why not go to 3600Mhz for less. Noted. I will likely get off the Samsung evo drive as well for better $ / performance. Hp could be good. Cheers! 

G.Skill is just as reputable as Corsair, you won't have any issues, faster RAM for less is a no brainer.

 

Don't get me wrong the Samsung drives are a quality product, but they come with a price premium. I replaced the 250GB m.2 in my Dell XPS13 recently with the HP EX920 1TB and have had no issues. 

[the_pincer]

Couple of improvements so far, exactly what I was hoping to accomplish. Moved off the 500G samsung M.2 drive into the HP 1TB for only $10 more and off the 3200mhz corsair memory into the faster gskill for $20 less. The case, honestly I don't care about at all.. the one in my cart is actually a corsair carbide 100R but that one wasn't on the parts picker list so I chose the similarly priced 200. I guess I would like to have a USB 3.0 port on the front... 

 

Let's talk mobo's. 570 is current gen chipset and doesn't have compatibility issues or need potential bios updates w/ 3rd gen ryzen. Even if B450 chipset doesn't need flashed anymore, why go with anything other than 570 for a current build? A few different review sites pointed me towards the ASUS TUF board as good value but I can be convinced otherwise if there are good arguments to be made. 

Current config - 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor	$249.99 @ Memory Express
Motherboard	Asus TUF GAMING X570-PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard	$214.75 @ Vuugo
Memory	G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory	$95.99 @ Newegg Canada
Storage	HP EX920 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$144.35 @ Newegg Canada Marketplace
Storage	Seagate Barracuda 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$89.99 @ Newegg Canada
Video Card	Gigabyte Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB GAMING OC Video Card	$559.99 @ Newegg Canada
Case	Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case	$74.50 @ Vuugo
Power Supply	Corsair RMx (2018) 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	$119.99 @ Amazon Canada
Operating System	Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit	$134.75 @ Vuugo
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$1684.30
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-12-10 23:19 EST-0500

 

[Bombastinator]

24 minutes ago, the_pincer said:

Haha the intended purpose is a bit toungue in cheek. You have to understand that I am an old school gamer from the 80's. I was playing CS from the bunny hopping beta. My scout deagle game was unbeatable... used to play under the handle www.scoutschool.edu hahaha. Thanks for your comments but slapping the young fella around for a few more years is not going to be an issue. Like any good father though, my goal is to make him superior to me in every way

We were all hot gamers when we were 18.  You’re slower than you were.  You know why the infantry is called the infantry? It’s from the word “enfant” and it’s old.  Roman.  Back when they used swords and shield the Roman army used to put the youngest troops in the van.  Not because they were more expendable but because they had better reflexes.  Smarts and money you got more of for now.  Nerve speed you don’t.  I don’t even have to know how old you are.  Just that you’re over 21.  It keeps on getting worse btw.  I had to stop playing MMOs around age 35.  It was embarrassing.  Single player rpgs for me now these days.

[Herman Mcpootis]

1 hour ago, the_pincer said:

Hmm, I know little about these new m.2 drives.. the silicon power reviews scare me. The ADATA one I would consider. I have no point of reference to compare against so if i get a poorly performing m.2 drive I wont know the difference. Anyone else want to weigh in on this one? 

What about the RAM? I am not read up on current days timings... is there better value our there for RAM than the 3200mhz corsair vengence? 

 

https://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/2171?vs=2433

https://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/2171?vs=2381

they're both on par with the 970 evo for much less.

[boggy77]

4 hours ago, the_pincer said:

Couple of improvements so far, exactly what I was hoping to accomplish. Moved off the 500G samsung M.2 drive into the HP 1TB for only $10 more and off the 3200mhz corsair memory into the faster gskill for $20 less. The case, honestly I don't care about at all.. the one in my cart is actually a corsair carbide 100R but that one wasn't on the parts picker list so I chose the similarly priced 200. I guess I would like to have a USB 3.0 port on the front... 

 

Let's talk mobo's. 570 is current gen chipset and doesn't have compatibility issues or need potential bios updates w/ 3rd gen ryzen. Even if B450 chipset doesn't need flashed anymore, why go with anything other than 570 for a current build? A few different review sites pointed me towards the ASUS TUF board as good value but I can be convinced otherwise if there are good arguments to be made. 

Current config - 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor	$249.99 @ Memory Express
Motherboard	Asus TUF GAMING X570-PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard	$214.75 @ Vuugo
Memory	G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory	$95.99 @ Newegg Canada
Storage	HP EX920 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$144.35 @ Newegg Canada Marketplace
Storage	Seagate Barracuda 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$89.99 @ Newegg Canada
Video Card	Gigabyte Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB GAMING OC Video Card	$559.99 @ Newegg Canada
Case	Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case	$74.50 @ Vuugo
Power Supply	Corsair RMx (2018) 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	$119.99 @ Amazon Canada
Operating System	Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit	$134.75 @ Vuugo
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$1684.30
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-12-10 23:19 EST-0500

 

Looks like a solid build. That asus x570 is one of the best price/performance. The only thing I'd change is the case. Take a look at what fractal design, coolermaster and bequiet have to offer. As for windows, either don't bother activating, look for some alternative site where you can find windows licences for a few dollars, or if you have a student in your family, most universities offer free windows licences.

[the_pincer]

2 hours ago, boggy77 said:

Looks like a solid build. That asus x570 is one of the best price/performance. The only thing I'd change is the case. Take a look at what fractal design, coolermaster and bequiet have to offer. As for windows, either don't bother activating, look for some alternative site where you can find windows licences for a few dollars, or if you have a student in your family, most universities offer free windows licences.

Yeah I can improve on the case for sure I'll probably just go with whatever Amazon has on sale w/ a high rating that day. 

 

Do you guys think there will be some good deals on some of this hardware boxing week? I'm not smart enough to shop black friday 

[boggy77]

12 minutes ago, the_pincer said:

Yeah I can improve on the case for sure I'll probably just go with whatever Amazon has on sale w/ a high rating that day. 

 

Do you guys think there will be some good deals on some of this hardware boxing week? I'm not smart enough to shop black friday 

you might find deals on storage and case, I doubt there will be big discounts on the other components.

[the_pincer]

It's build day gentlemen! Arooooo!!!!

 

 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor	$255.25 @ Vuugo
Motherboard	MSI X570-A PRO ATX AM4 Motherboard	$199.99 @ Amazon Canada
Memory	G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory	$109.99 @ Newegg Canada
Storage	ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 512 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$94.99 @ Memory Express
Storage	Seagate Barracuda 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$99.99 @ Amazon Canada
Video Card	Sapphire Radeon RX 5700 8 GB PULSE Video Card	$463.56 @ Amazon Canada
Case	Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case	$59.99 @ Canada Computers
Power Supply	Corsair CXM 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply	$69.99 @ Canada Computers
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$1378.75
	Mail-in rebates	-$25.00
	Total	$1353.75
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-01-04 13:02 EST-0500

 

[the_pincer]

Ended up going w/ the 5700 non XT from Sapphire that has dual bios and will flash in the XT firmware  Very happy with the value I think I have gotten in this build. Thanks for all of your help! 

[Princess Luna]

23 hours ago, the_pincer said:

Motherboard MSI X570-A PRO ATX AM4 Motherboard

Congratz for the second worse x570 motherboard on the market that throttles even the 3700X already.

 

23 hours ago, the_pincer said:

Ended up going w/ the 5700 non XT from Sapphire that has dual bios and will flash in the XT firmware

All that does is increase the base core frequency which can be achieve by manually overclocking the card any ways, it ain't a 5700 XT in any way.

 

23 hours ago, the_pincer said:

Corsair CXM 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply

Given the CXM uses a much older topology than the CX and has plenty of corners cut this is an inadequate PSU for the build.

 

Why did you even bother with this thread if you go and buy a much crappier product in the end? You went from a great build to junk in the end, even if you wanted to save these 250 dollars you should have mentioned it in here and still got value out of your purchase... the way it end up like you paid less but got much much worse value for all those 1000+ dollars you still spend.

[Bombastinator]

4 hours ago, Princess Luna said:

Congratz for the second worse x570 motherboard on the market that throttles even the 3700X already.

 

All that does is increase the base core frequency which can be achieve by manually overclocking the card any ways, it ain't a 5700 XT in any way.

 

Given the CXM uses a much older topology than the CX and has plenty of corners cut this is an inadequate PSU for the build.

 

Why did you even bother with this thread if you go and buy a much crappier product in the end? You went from a great build to junk in the end, even if you wanted to save these 250 dollars you should have mentioned it in here and still got value out of your purchase... the way it end up like you paid less but got much much worse value for all those 1000+ dollars you still spend.

Whozatwhatsit?  There are x570 boards that throttle 37000x ?